Falling
by The Specter of Silence
Summary: A look into Lois and Clark's thoughts during a few scenes in Idol 9x08


Falling

The only thought in her mind kept repeating over and over and over. She felt as though things were in slow motion. She was struggling, pushing with all her strength against the two sets of arms forcing her to ledge.

She didn't want to die. Not now. She couldn't. And to have them frame Clark for her murder? NO. She was not going to die. NoNoNoNO.

She fought, but her adrenaline rush didn't prove enough and she felt herself being heaved into open air. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the city streets below, so far away. The people below on the sidewalk mere ants walking nonchalantly along, going about their business. She heard a scream leave her mouth as her arms grabbed wildly at the emptiness around her, grasping, reaching for something, anything. Suddenly something hard connected to her ribcage and she momentarily was paralyzed as all the air was harshly forced from her lungs. She managed enough clear thought to make her arms grab what she had hit as gravity started to force her down again. She slipped and all of her weight was now being supported by her hands which grasped …what? What was she hanging off of?

She looked over and saw part of it fall off. The American flag, along with part of a metal rod had snapped off. A flagpole. Oh God. She was hanging from a flagpole on the roof of the Daily Planet building. Correction. She was hanging from HALF a flagpole after being thrown OFF the roof of the Daily Planet. She forced herself not to watch the falling flag as it hit a lower ledge and instead looked up to the roof.

Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down.

She snuck a look down.

Someone had noticed her and already a small crowd was gathering.

They were so tiny, so far away.

She felt the pull of gravity and the sweat on her palms started to make gripping the flagpole hard.

Oh God.

Why did she look?

Oh god…she was going to die.

She looked down again.

The crowd had grown exponentially and she saw camera flashes below her as the vultures from the first floor of the Planet flooded out for exclusives.

Hell of a day to wear a dress….the humor of the situation didn't get further than her head. Tomorrow's front page would feature an unflattering picture of her dangling high above, sure…but what would the outcome be? "Daily Planet Reporter Falls to Death: Blur to Blame?" Or "Miraculous Rooftop Save"?

"Help! Somebody!" she screamed, carefully adjusting her grip as she stared down the people. Flashes of the cameras filled her vision as she heard sirens wailing, coming closer. She was going to die. They would be too late. She was going to die.

Suddenly she heard a voice above her.

"Lois?" the voice was filled with concern. Clark. The Blur. Her hero. She was going to be ok. She slowly looked upwards. He was leaning over the ledge and staring down at her.

Clark had never seen Lois looking so panicked. The November wind whipped around her coat and her hair, making her sway unsettlingly as she clung to a thin flagpole. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and he could hear her breath coming in unsteady gasps. He wanted so much just to jump down to the ledge, take a super leap and gather her up in his arms and allow them to fall to the ground, cradling her from the harm of the inevitable impact. He took a brief look at the cameras on the street…

He couldn't. And super speed was out, they'd already captured him peering over the ledge, if he disappeared saving her….it was all over… His vision returned to Lois. She was peering up at him, her hazel eyes wide in fear. He had to save her! But….

He couldn't save her as the Blur this time.

….

However that didn't mean Clark Kent wasn't still standing on the roof. And if it meant saving her dressed as a human spider, he would have done it right now. Lois' life hung in the balance.

"Hold on, I'm coming." He started to scale carefully down the roof till he got to another smaller ledge.

"Clark!…help me." Lois heard her own voice quaver. He knelt down and reached out his hand.

"Lois?"

"Clark..." her voice came shaking again. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Please.

"Grab my hand." She tried to use the wall next to her as leverage to boost herself higher with her legs, to climb, but her arms were too tired to pull herself up anyways. She shook her head.

"…I can't!"

"Alright, hold on…" He leaned further over the ledge, with one leg over it. His foot slipped for a minute and the crowd gasped, but he steadied himself and reached out his hand to her as far as he could. All she could see in that moment was his hand. Not taking a moment to consider the risks she let go of the pole with one hand and tried to reach it up to his. Desperately she grabbed upwards, but there was still a gap. Her heart sunk. He couldn't do anything super in front of the cameras…and now she was going to die because she couldn't manage to pull herself up a few inches.

"Come on Lois, stretch, you can reach!"

"It's too far…" she said, but kept trying to reach for his hand. And then for a millisecond their fingers touched, and Lois thought she might be able to do it. That she would be ok. That everything would be ok.

And then she slipped. "LOIS!" Clark yelled. Her hand slipped from the flagpole, but all she saw was her other hand falling away from Clark's. She managed to catch the pole again, as gravity tugged at her body. She could feel all the blood drain from her face and herself gasping for air as she was whipped around, her shoe disappearing to the street below.

"Lois hold on!" Clark said frantically.

For a minute there was silence as Lois became still and she stared at the crowd.

She looked up slowly. Her eyes had become red from the stinging wind. She was so tired. She wished with all her heart that she could just tell Clark to save her. Save her in any way possible. But she couldn't. She knew what she had to do.

"Let me go…" her voice said softly. Resolved, devastated, and terrified all at once.

"That's insane Lois!"

"You can't reveal yourself to the cameras…" Clark's heart jolted. Did she know! How could she possibly know? "You mean too much to the city… to the world!" Clark was speechless. "Clark, I know that you've been living two lives and having to lie to me about it every day." Clark shook his head, no Lois Lane wasn't going to die. He was going to save her, and somehow keep his secret intact.

"Lois you're not making any sense." He tried. And then, a miracle. Out of the corner of his eyes, fog. A thick cloud of it moving so fast it could only be caused by someone superhuman. He didn't care who it was right now. "It's gonna be ok. Just hold on." He reassured her. This could work.

She smiled at him. A sad sort of smile. She hadn't seen the fog. She was still resolute in falling.

"I've always known deep down that you were a hero…" Their eyes caught. And for a moment, Clark wondered if he should just come clean to her. If he should just save her here and now. But his decision was made for him. Lois' remaining hand slipped from the flagpole.

"Lois!" Clark called. But it was too late. She managed to meet his gaze one last time before she lost him in a haze. Her vision was swimming. There was rushing air all around her. Lois squeezed her eyes shut tight. She hoped that it wouldn't hurt too much. She hoped it would be quick. But mostly she hoped that Clark would be ok…

But then she felt somehow lighter than air. As though the weight of gravity that she had felt the past thirty minutes or so had just vanished. And she felt warm. And safe. Just as she was about to open her eyes, she felt her body gently bump against what appeared to be concrete. She opened her eyes and stood up in a dense cloud of fog, looking around. Amazed. Her heart was still racing. But as she looked upwards, to the cover of fog all around her. She knew what had happened. Knew without a doubt who had saved her. She started walking. Her legs were numb, and she was surprised she could walk at all. But she was so elated it didn't matter. And then a voice. His voice behind her.

"Lois! You're alive!" She turned instantly and hugged him tight.

"Thank you." She whispered in his ear. She wished that that moment could have lasted forever. There was no place she would rather be. She may have just been terrified and fallen thirty stories from the top of a building, but right now she was overjoyed, because Clark Kent and the Blur were one in the same. And she'd fallen for him completely.


End file.
